The demand for data storage has been rapidly escalating because as the amount of data such as digital media stored by users grows, so does their need to store digital media reliably over extended periods of time. Traditional backup solutions periodically copy data to, for example, backup tapes, compact discs (CDs), or other local storage media. However, such solutions are not optimal because the backup media is stored in a single location, and the media being used for backup has typically been prone to failure.
Commercially available services that are referred to as cloud storage services (CSS) provide mass storage through a web service interface available through the Internet. The storage infrastructure includes a distributed array of geographically distributed data centers connected to a plurality of clients through a wide area network (WAN). A data center typically consists of servers and mass storage to facilitate cloud storage services to the clients. Such services enable applications including, for example, backup and restore of data, data synchronization, file sharing, and so on.
Cloud storage services are accessible to users from anywhere in the world, through a client implementing a web services' interface designed to at least synchronize data with the data centers. However, such web services fail to provide standard file sharing protocols (e.g., common internet file system (CIFS) or network file system (NFS)). In addition, accessing files stored in the cloud storage from the LAN is typically many times slower than accessing files stored in storage devices on the same LAN.
A network attached storage (NAS) device for performing NAS operations with cloud storage services is also discussed in the related art. Such a NAS device provides the functionality of data storage, file-based operations (e.g., read, write, delete, modify, etc.), and the management of these functionalities to clients on the network. Specifically, a client can store data in its local storage which is also synchronized with a cloud storage service. The client can access and perform file-based operations either on its local storage or the cloud storage service. An access to the files in the device is only through a local area network, while access to the cloud storage is through a web portal. Devices) which are integrated with a cloud storage services are discussed in related art.
In a virtual environment of cloud storage systems, the storage services should be efficiently provided to multiple tenants. An organization, enterprise, or other entity utilizing the cloud storage service is referred to as a tenant, i.e., a paying customer for the cloud storage services. Different tenants are typically provisioned with different storage, performance, and security services based in part on a service package that each tenant purchased.
Existing solutions permit manual configuration of devices of a tenant. Such solutions allow a tenant to add devices to a tenant by manually configuring the device with the required details. Typically, this is a tedious and time consuming task. For example, to configure a tenant with thousands of devices would be a prolonged process.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a solution that would overcome the deficiencies of the prior art by permitting enrollment of devices and their users in a tenant's subsection of a cloud storage system.